Behind “The Pitt,” the Mark Ruffalo-led crime drama “Task” ranks first. HBO Max’s biggest hit series in 2025. So the series went from a mini-series to a full-fledged second season. Ruffalo is confirmed to be returning as Pennsylvania FBI agent Tom Brandis, but “Task” Season 2 has a hurdle.
Since, again, “Task” was produced as a mini-series, the finale was rather conclusive. The criminal case that led to the season’s conflict — robberies and home invasions at drug houses used by a local biker gang — is over. Without getting into specific spoilers, let’s just say that several cast members from Season 1 of “Task” are not on the table to return in Season 2.
“Task” is part police procedural, so that hurdle should be easy for creator Brad Ingelsby to clear. For season 2 of “Task,” all you have to do is stick Brandis on a new case.
There’s already an ideal candidate for Brandis’ new task force: Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet), the star of Ingelsby’s previous HBO crime drama, “Mare of Easttown.” Ingelsby confirmed that he saw “Task” and “Mare” as taking place in the same world.and it’s easy to see them overlap. Both series are set in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the two main characters are grieving police parents, etc. “Task” and “Mare” could go together like cold water and a hot day. Ruffalo and Winslet didn’t share scenes when they both appeared on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” but season 2 of “Task” could put them both in the spotlight.
Task and Mare of Easttown take place in the same universe
Unlike “Task,” which was quickly renewed for a second season, “Mare of Easttown” remained a miniseries after its seven episodes — but that could soon change. After declaring in 2024 that she had no conversations for season 2 of “Mare”Winslet recently said Deadline that the conversations of season 2 of “Mare” to have has started, and there is a “high probability” that the season will take place in 2027.
“These were real conversations at a time when [‘Mare’] season 2 could be possible. And so I think we probably will, and this is the first time I’ve ever felt that way,” Winslet said. Compare that near certainty to Winslet tells TVLine in 2021shortly after the end of season 1 of “Mare”, that “[She] I would love to play Mare again,” but I wondered if that opportunity would actually come.
“There’s something very addictive about Mare, because she’s so outrageous and adorable and brilliant and real, you know? I loved playing her,” Winslet said. Ingelsby told TV Line in 2021 that he would only want to do a season 2 if he could offer a story worthy of the first season. As he said:
“We gave Mare such a personal arc in which she had to deal with this loss in her life, and we had to build another emotional arc that could compete with [that]”.
Based on Winslet’s comments to Deadline, it seems like the light bulb finally went off over Ingelsby’s head, and he found an “emotional arc” worthy of Season 1’s “Mare.”
How could a Mare of Easttown and Task crossover work?
Ingelsby has yet to comment on filming “Mare of Easttown” Season 2 in 2027 or offer any hints about what the story might be. However, it’s possible that the writing of “Task,” which is again a series so similar to “Mare” that it takes place in the same world, helped spark ideas for Ingelsby about other stories for that world. If both “Mare” and “Task” get a second season, then the crossover doesn’t even need to happen in “Task” season 2; maybe Tom could come to Easttown for an episode.
Given Ingelsby’s stated views on creating a “Mare” season 2, it seems like he wouldn’t do a “Mare” and “Task” crossover just for the sake of novelty. He would need to come up with a solid story to justify this crossover.
Mare and Tom spend their respective shows overcoming parental trauma. Mare’s son, Kevin, committed suicide and at the end of the season, she had to send her best friend Lori’s (Julianne Nicholson) son, Ryan (Cameron Mann), to prison for manslaughter. Tom’s mentally ill son, Ethan (Andrew Russell), faces prison for accidentally killing his mother during an argument. The two would definitely have things to create outside of police work.
Season 1 of “Mare of Easttown” and “Task” are both streaming on HBO Max. Neither “Mare of Easttown” Season 2 nor “Task” Season 2 have a confirmed release date at this time.
